But now the volunteer-based organization has taken one major step forward in reaching more people on part of the map that means most: Asheville. The organization learned last week that the Federal Communication Commission approved its application for a low-powered FM station.

The application was for a construction permit for a 100-watt radio station, on the airwaves at 103.3 FM, which will be beamed from a radio tower atop Hotel Indigo in downtown Asheville. The station now has 18 months to raise the funds for the equipment and building costs. On Tuesday, the organization launched an Indiegogo online crowdsourcing campaign to raise $45,000.

The mission of Friends of Community Radio, Inc., the parent nonprofit for Asheville FM, has always been to produce community radio for local airwaves, said Erik Mattox, board president.

Kim Roney, board member and station co-manager, emphasized that the FM station will make the local programming more accessible and remove “the barrier of internet access.”

“Regardless of whether folks can afford the internet, they can get the sound of Asheville” through the FM station, she said. “It is just amplifying our mission to provide free-form, locally produced content.”

About 80 active volunteers are behind the array of programming, which draws an average 1.1 million hits each month, Roney said. Shows include pop, politics and poetry. News and blues. Old-school country and shows for kids still in school.

About 50 percent of the team come from a radio background — 100 percent have a passion for radio, said Greg Lyon, vice president of Friends of Community Radio. The most popular features are consistently Ultimate Twang, an old-school country show, followed by an anarchist news program that is syndicated in Germany, Roney and Lyon noted.

They are also developing more Spanish-language programming, Roney said. “We are excited about really representing the whole community,”

The programming will not change significantly once it’s on the air. They will have to abide by FCC rules, which have already been the station’s practice, Lyon said.

The on-air move is the first time any organization has had opportunity to apply for a FCC license in about 10 years, Lyon said. “The FCC did a new study on the spacing on the FM dial,” he said. “They decided that they had been too conservative in the way they spaced the stations. They could get by without interference and squeeze a couple more small stations.”

They applied in fall 2013 for the 103.3 FM call number. The group had a two-week period to get in the application. Asheville FM turned out to be the only applicant for that frequency, and after a 30-day window of public comment “which passed by tranquilly,” Lyon said, the FCC announced the application’s approval.

The FM license adds “an incredible amount of legitimacy,” Lyon said. It will give the station more cache with record companies, for example. The station will still be available online, he added.

Asheville FM’s on-air development comes at a time when “people are trying to renegotiate” how they listen to radio, Lyon noted. “People think radio is dying in some way, but I don‘t think that’s true,” he said.

On a recent road trip, Lyon scanned the stations as he traveled across the country. He said he was struck by the “real time” aspect of radio, and that radio allowed him to access these communities in a deep way, even though he was just passing through.

“I feel different when I am listening to the radio,” he said. “It’s live. It’s real-time and it connects me to the place that I am in.”

Asheville FM on 103.3 will connect more deeply with the community, he said. “This is going to make the station focus more on delivering real-time curated radio.”